Advanced Style

Overview

"I've never wanted to look young; I want to look great". Great is an understatement: Joyce Carpati's ensemble is unashamedly chic. Dressed in head-to-toe black, the octogenarian sports a classic braided up-do, flashes a statement lip and is positively dripping in pearls.

Pearls, feathers and fur aplenty — not mention many an outrageous hat — make Advanced Style a visual feast. Based on the blog of the same name by Ari Seth Cohen, the documentary flies in the face of today's youth-obsessed fashion culture, exploring the eclectic flair of seven New Yorkers aged between 62 and 95.

Cohen teamed up with Lithuanian-born filmmaker Lina Plioplyte to spend four years shooting the low-budget documentary with the help of a Kickstarter campaign. The small scale of the production comes through in the intimacy of the finished feature. The documentary give us insight into the lives of these unique New Yorkers, weaving together vignettes of their personal stories in a structure that is at times rambling yet nevertheless engaging. You simply can't help but be captivated by the bright red eyelashes of Ilona Royce Smithkin, a 93-year-old art teacher whose falsies are cut from her own flame-coloured hair. Or take Tziporah Salamon, the 64-year-old who spends seven years perfecting a single ensemble and refuses to cycle with a helmet because "every outfit has a hat".

The documentary skilfully portrays the diversity of these seven women. They range in age, taste and socioeconomic background; one has a penchant for Chanel handbags, while another worries about rent and (somehow) manages to create striking jewellery from used toilet paper rolls. At the same time, however, the film doesn't shy away from the shared reality of ageing. Concerns over lost loved ones, responsibilities as carers and missing out on motherhood arise, as well as the difficulties of physical disabilities that come with getting older — ex-dancer Jacquie Tajah Murdock is legally blind and still looks fabulous.

These more serious moments lend real humanity to the individual women and depth to the film as a bold and refreshing celebration of ageing. These seven women are a testament to a future the rest of us can all look forward to — an age when we'll also have the self-confidence to team bright red eyelashes with look-at-me lipstick and a giant feather boa.